Keeping a Poker Face
by Maelstrom Sparrow
Summary: L notices that his suspect hasn’t been sleeping well in the weeks after his confinement. Perhaps his fellow insomniac will drop him a few drowsy clues over a game of poker? T for implication & a not-quite-straight orientation.


Keeping a Poker Face – L notices that his suspect hasn't been sleeping after his confinement

**Keeping a Poker Face – **L notices that his suspect hasn't been sleeping well in the weeks after his confinement. Perhaps his fellow insomniac will drop him a few drowsy clues over a game of poker?

XxXxXxX

_Nine days…it's only been nine days._ He reminded himself. _You have to get a grip otherwise you'll never survive this. It's not like you've done anything wrong. He'll be able to see that you're innocent…eventually…_

"You're not sleeping." L said suddenly, stirring Light out of his daze.

Moonlight was washing through the room gently, illuminating the stark red letters of a clock blinking at 12:03. Light flipped over to stare over into the darkness where the voice had come from, bristling and irritated. As the lighting fell, only a pair of white feet were visible, toes curling and shuffling automatically. A slender chain swooped off into the darkness like a wide smile.

Light sighed, and rubbed his hand over his face. "Well, I was about to."

L cocked his head in mild interest, and let his feet slide down and come to rest on the floor. Light squeezed his eyes shut, hoping the detective would let him be for a while. Sure, he hadn't been able to get a full night's sleep since his confinement, and – horror of horrors – he was starting to look a little like Ryuuzaki with the growing bags under his eyes, but that was no cause for alarm. Anyone would be a little traumatized after being accused of mass murder.

Unfortunately, Ryuuzaki didn't think so lightly of his symptoms – or perhaps he was angry that Light was borrowing his "look". Either way, the teenager found himself looking up at a pair of unblinking eyes suspended just above his. L was chewing on his fingernail and examining his captive like some kind of specimen. Light flinched in surprise.

"You're usually a better liar, Raito-kun. We _are_ handcuffed – I couldn't help but notice you tossing and turning all night. And the night before." The detective stared unflinchingly and Light huffed quietly.

"How would you know something like…?" the teenager began, then trailed of fruitlessly. He _was_ ridiculously tired. L _finally_ blinked, and removed the finger from his lips without the slightest change of expression.

"I _never_ sleep," he said in a flat voice. Light knew he was just trying to creep him out, but chills still crept down his spine at the strange man above him.

"…And you seem to do just fine." He retaliated hesitantly, and rolled back over.

After nine days of complete and uninterrupted quality time, L was obviously starting to understand Light very well. It was hard not to memorize someone's quirks and expressions in such a situation, even without being the world's best detective. Light was a little irked that L was much harder to read. His expressions changed with only the slightest motion – he seemed to prefer staring blank-faced, wide-eyed and gaunt to convey every range of emotions on the spectrum.

The _last_ thing he wanted to see right now was the all-knowledgeable L evaluating him. Light moaned angrily as he heard feet padding around the bed, felt the chain tangle itself in the blankets and come to an uncomfortable rest. One slender finger jabbed him in the ribs irately.

"What?" he snapped back just as angrily.

"Get up." Came the monotonous reply.

"_What?_" Light repeated, letting his eye jerk open so he could glare at the annoying detective. "It's midnight!"

L shrugged and yanked the chain – Light came tumbling out of the bed furiously in a mass of coiled blankets. "Hey!" he barked, extracting himself from the tangle and pulling himself up to standing.

"You weren't going to get up." L offered by way of explanation, "but you weren't going to fall asleep either. I hardly ever sleep. I know how to entertain myself. I'll help you."

Light blinked, his expression switching tracks from annoyance to mildly touched shock. L offering to do something nice? Preposterous.

_Then again,_ Light reasoned, _he did just yank me out of bed._

The teenager sighed again and gave in. "Sure, why not. What did you have in mind?"

He cocked his head, not changing that blank, owlish stare, and said simply, "Poker."

Light twitched. "You've got to be kidding me."

L shook his head. "Not at all. It can be very intellectual at times. It's all about psychology, really. I'm sure Yagami-kun would be entertained by something such as that." A rare, challenging half-smile broke over L's face. "And I would be pleased to finally have a tough opponent such as Yagami-kun. You must know how to play?"

"Of course I do," his teenage friend answered, "I'm just surprised that you do. Where would someone like you learn something like that?"

"In England," he answered simply, and as he spoke he lead Light over to the beside table, where he extracted a beat-up pack of cards from the drawer. "They aren't very technologically advanced there. English people play a lot of cards." He said lightheartedly. "And tennis."

The interrogation broke with a laugh. Light had conceded defeat. "Very well," he said, "what do we have to bet with?"

L obliviously dragged Light over to the coffee table in the middle of the room, sucking on his forefinger pensively. "Hm…" he pondered as Light caught up to him and rubbed his wrist. Ryuuzaki looked back innocently over his shoulder. "I suppose we have our clothes."

There was a stunned silence before Light sputtered. "Our…_what??_"

The detective's face gained that odd smile again. "I was joking, Raito-kun." He said brightly, then led his captive – as Light was beginning to feel – into the kitchen. L busied himself with the fridge as his friend stood in the doorway, wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into when L produced two large containers of cherries, a bag of cookies and one magnificently frosted half-eaten cheesecake.

"Twenty-five cherries apiece," he explained hurriedly, popping a stray one into his mouth and continuing slightly muffled. "a dozen cookies each, and four slices of cake. Sound fair?" he offered, spitting a cherry pit masterfully into the sink. L began dividing the goods before his opponent could respond.

Light nodded, still bewildered but bemused. "Just so long as you don't eat the betting pieces."

His friend blinked as if he were amazed at Light's stupidity. "That's what the other box of cherries is for."

XxXxXxX

A few minutes later, Light was sitting across from his arch-rival and best friend wondering how the hell cherries, cookies and cake managed to mutate to include a stack of sweets so high he could hardly see L's face anymore. The ace detective was crouched in his customary position on the floor, Light seated opposite in bewilderment. Cans of melted chocolate, whip cream, strawberry sauce and syrup, half a cherry pie, a tub of ice cream…

"Is that your strategy?" Light laughed. "Hide yourself behind a wall of inscrutable candy?"

L peered out from over a box of chocolates balanced precariously on the ice cream box. "Do you doubt my poker face, Raito-kun?" the detective asked playfully.

"Of course not," he replied absentmindedly, but something else held his attention. L was currently smiling uncontrollably, a horrendous poker-face if there ever was one. But since when did L smile? Even his jokes were bitter and dry. And yet suddenly he was freely joking about strip poker?

Light shuffled the cards obediently, assessing him. _No. I won't be distracted. Perhaps this is just a strategy to confuse me._

"Texas Hold'em?" he asked seriously, delighting in the crisp sound of the shuffling cards.

"Ah, wait, Raito-kun," L interrupted, digging for something in his pocket. Light became utterly confused when he drew out a tiny key, and released them from the handcuffs with two swift clicks.

As Light rubbed his wrists in shock and stared questioningly at his captor, L simply shrugged. "You won't go anywhere during _this_ game." He supplied ambiguously and placed the cuffs carefully under the table, keeping his eyes locked on Light.

Light sighed and passed two cards across the table. He then drew a hand of his own, and then laughed as his opponent held each of the cards up in his strange way, scrutinizing. Blank, black irises stared back at him. Light snuck a peek at his take, still chuckling – spade Queen and Queen of Hearts. Lucky as hell for a first draw.

"Well," Light said, twirling a cherry methodically in his fingers. "Ante up."

XxXxXxX

"You're counting!" Light accused, tapping the deck incredulously and shuffling it for the eighth time. "Counting cards, you cheating little…"

"He who strikes first wins," L reiterated, sweeping the take of four cherries and two cookies towards him greedily. He twirled his fingers around the stem and lifted one slowly towards his mouth.

"Don't eat the game pieces, Ryuuzaki," Light quipped, dealing out the two-card hands with volatile snaps. His eyes ran scornfully over his steadily diminishing stack of cherries. L's pile of sweets only seemed to grow more massive._ Duh, _he realized, _he's got like half the kitchen stacked up there! Perhaps that's why. He's not even betting with half of it. It just makes him look intimidating…_

Grumbling visibly, L set the cherry back down. "I'm sure you're capable of counting too, Raito-kun. I was hoping you would, to make the game interesting."

"Capable my ass," he snarled, "I haven't slept in a week and haven't eaten since seven. I'm about as capable as you without sugar."

L cringed at the thought, and Light could see a surge of pity course through his eyes.

"Gimme that chocolate sauce," he sighed, tossing in his cards. "Fold."

L picked up the deck lightly and reshuffled after tossing the chocolate sauce across the table. "Hoping to wake yourself up?" he asked honestly, as Light flipped open the cap and emptied a good few tablespoons of the sweet, sticky mass into his mouth.

"Nnmphf…" he began, then swallowed and smirked. "Nope. I'm upping the ante."

The threat would have been taken seriously, had there not been a very evident smudge of chocolate on Light's cheek. But soon L realized, though the statement had lost its effect, the chocolate sauce hadn't. Light busied himself with furiously coating each of the cherries, drenching the cookies and following it up by attacking the four pieces of cake with elaborate swirls of chocolate.

L's mouth watered, but Raito-kun was not about to relinquish the chocolate sauce.

XxXxXxX

The game gradually mutated into a very serious competition. Mind games were played in mere seconds and pure silence, small fragments like "call" and "fold" the only sound in the room besides the constant undertones of L's eating. So when someone spoke to break the almost suffocating and intellectual silence, it was something really important.

"You're cheating now too…" L grumbled.

"All's fair in love and war, Ryuuzaki…" Light purred gratefully, raking in a good half-dozen cookies from L's last foolish bet. Apparently he couldn't resist the chocolate sauce, and if the original detective was prone to taking risks, a detective tempted by chocolate sauce was downright reckless.

L couldn't stop staring at the smudge of enticing chocolate on Light's cheek. It was irritating him, ruining his poker face, but he wouldn't dare tell because it gave him a little leverage. An ace in the hole, so to speak, should he need it.

XxXxXxX

Reckless though he was, L was determined to win the chocolate sauce battle. A few hands later he had swept back the dozen cookies with a full house Light could never have predicted. Two rounds later he took back half of Light's cherries with pocket aces.

But then Light came back with an unpredictable – and _ridiculously_ lucky – straight on the river card, which earned him the game's first slice of cheesecake.

"Who's winning?" Light asked heatedly, counting the cherries and adding up non-existent figures in his head. "Me?"

"I doubt it matters, Raito-kun…" L growled. "I suppose you're winning, but after these cards, I wouldn't be too sure…" he said, waving his hand in his face with a smirk. Light stared back unflinchingly, trying to read the taunt. _Is it a bluff? It has to be._

The clock blinking on the table read 1:48. The passage of time didn't seem to connect with either of them, and they kept on shuffling, dealing, betting, black eyes meeting burnished bronze in a calculating, constant gaze. L kept his face as immaculate as he could, chewing on his fingers whenever he had a spade (a trait Light had picked up on about four rounds in).

Light lifted a generous clump of five cherries in and smirked. Chocolate sauce dripped off them generously. L licked his lips and blindly called his bet, chewing angrily on one finger.

_At least one spade, then,_ Light contemplated, checking his cards with a minor satisfaction. Two sevens were good enough to entice L into playing the hand without being too risky. L was enough of a gambler to play him. By the way he was mooning over the chocolate-covered cherries, Light doubted he was even paying attention.

Smirking with such an easy win, Light flipped up three more cards. Three of Diamonds, Seven of Hearts, Five of Clubs. _Excellent! Another seven!_ Light smiled inwardly, careful not to show his joy lest Ryuuzaki catch on. Though, when he stole a glance up at the detective, he seemed to be occupied with his cards.

Then L pressed his cards down flat on the table and sighed, digging out another spoonful of mint-chocolate-chip. "Raito-kun," he sighed irritably, "something has been _bothering_ me all night…" very slowly, the detective ran his tongue over the ice cream and Light shuddered inexplicably. _What?_

The feeling of _What _intensified substantially when L slid his feet to the floor and dropped the spoon without any change in expression. The detective crouched more forwards and flattened his hands on the table, leaning in inches away from his suspect and glaring him directly in the eyes.

"You don't have a tell." Ryuuzaki muttered angrily, studying his face.

Light laughed a little too loudly in relief. "I suppose I'm just better at this than you think…" he whispered, leaning in slightly and half-wondering why he was being so coy.

L was unaffected. Time to draw out the ace in the hole.

Hovering patiently, he drew the moment out just long enough to freak out his opponent, but not too long – _now._ "And also, you've got some chocolate sauce…" he muttered, altogether too focused. Light flinched as Ryuuzaki brought the pad of his finger to the spot, smudging at the stray sauce like it was some kind of unsolvable puzzle. The poor teenager felt his heartbeat thunder, pulse quicken uncontrollably, wondering nothing if not _what the hell…_"Won't come off…" L muttered, his soothing baritone sending goosebumps over Light's neck.

_What the hell?_ He wondered again, eyes starting to stretch wide in horror at his own uncontrollable response to L, who suddenly seemed so – _oh god, now he's licking his fingers_…

L had long vaporized the chocolate sauce but he was not missing out on this opportunity. One more furious attempt was made on the invisible smear, L's eyebrows furrowing. "Gr…" he said angrily and, giving the appearance of giving up, he dragged his tongue slowly over the spot where the chocolate sauce _used_ to be.

Light stopped breathing for a moment as that hot, smooth tongue pressed languidly against his skin, burning and sweating – and then the presence was gone.

"That was _so annoying._" L said as if nothing had happened, though his eyes flashed with daring. "Your move, Raito-kun."

Flustered, Light tried to bring the cards back into focus. L leaned back to survey his handiwork – one very satisfying blush, check. He watched his opponent flounder for a minute as an excuse to ignore the excitement fluttering in his stomach.

_He won't get to me that easily. What was I thinking…the tell, yes, alright, at least one spade…_

_Hell, I've got three of a kind already. I am taking Ryuuzaki down._

Light smirked generously and pushed half-a-dozen cookies into the pile, effectively decimating his bargaining material. "Raise you." Light said. He then reflected briefly on how silly it was to be gambling with sweets, and then found it even more funny that L was probably very serious about it.

L called without showing any trace of emotion, still nibbling on that fingertip. The turn card showed itself to be a four of clubs. There appeared to be no effect, but Light remained cautious.

_If he has a spade, there's no chance of him getting anything from suits…_Light pondered, delighting in the multicolored cards ahead of him. _Three, five and seven means a potential straight, but if his cards are four and six I'll bet my last-_

"Damn you, Raito-kun…" L mused angrily, toying with a strawberry. "You've got my sevens."

There was a deadly, petrified silence.

_WHAT?_ Light gasped inwardly. _Since when can L read my mind?_

_Stay calm, Light. You're just making this…HOLY FUCKING HELL, L CAN READ MY MIND!_ He had to fight to stop hyperventilating. Rationalize, he needed to calm down, perhaps that was just a fluke? Did L really mean what he thought he…

_Does that mean he knows what I've been thinking about _him,_ too?_

_Gah! Shut up! You should be playing poker!_

Light abandoned the confusing thought at steeled his nerves. L was being far too distracting tonight.

And then, just as he had recovered from the initial shock of the mind reading, L withdrew his finger from his mouth and placed it on the cheesecake plate. He let it stay there for a few seconds, and then pushed the whole thing into the betting pile.

Light's eyes widened.

"I don't care if you've got my sevens." L says. "Raise you."

_Calm down!_ The teenage genius yelled at himself. _You just need to think!_

But all that came to mind was _what the hell is L up to? First he comes on to me and gets all creepy and seductive and he __licks my face__, which is nothing if not weird, and then he reads my freakin' mind and now he's betting like crazy. Why is he being so distracting?_

Light watched L suspiciously, glaring out of heated red eyes. The oblivious detective munched on a piece of chocolate, separating his cookies into little stacked piles and sucking on his forefinger.

_The tell._ It came to Light in a blinding white revelation like a Hallelujah chorus. His eyes snapped down excitedly to the flop cards before he could control it, checking just to make sure.

_He's bluffing me all the way! _Light recognized with satisfaction. _He's trying to distract me into folding when really he has nothing._

"Call!" Light cried triumphantly, then interrupted himself, "No, wait, Raise – all in!"

He recklessly shoved all of the cherries and remaining cookies and that magnificent cake into the centre, the scent of sugar scattering all over and settling in the air like a smog. A triumphant smirk decorated his face. L would surely fold now!

"…Call." Came the soft, controlled voice of Ryuuzaki, of L, who added the rest of his goods to the pile as well. Light nearly had a heart attack right there.

_Have I made the wrong move?_ He shook himself mentally. _No way…!_

"Let's see where our river takes us, shall we?" L mused, and flipped over the last card. It elicited a smile from the detective that made Light queasy.

"Three of clubs." he whispered, burying his face in his hands. "No, no, don't tell me…"

Ryuuzaki nodded insistently. He almost giggled out loud. If you're childish and hate to lose, well…it often goes hand in hand with being childish and _loving_ to win. "Yes." He said with a threatening smile. "Straight flush, victory, fair and square."

As he raked in his winnings and Light fumed silently, L actually snickered. He felt like a king surrounded by his castle of all-knowing and sugar. It was a _very_ wonderful feeling. "Let me guess," he purred victoriously as Light threw down his cards and started pacing around the table. "Three-of-a-kind sevens?"

Light grumbled in response, and then stopped himself. "How did you know?" he growled.

L began to methodically pop cherries in his mouth as he spoke. "Well, you see…Raito-kun has a very bad habit of holding his cards up while he contemplates the flop. You didn't put them down until after I fixed the chocolate sauce." He explained.

The satisfaction of one-upping Light, multiplied by the joy of being surrounded by sugar, instantly died. In a move of surprising agility, Light dove to the floor and shoved L down, straddling his hips to pin him and forcing his wrists to the floor. Cherries, chocolate and cookies scattered around them everywhere.

"You cheated!" He objected loudly. L had regained his mask and nodded with a stoic expression.

"Of course, Raito-kun. You were making the game a little _too_ interesting."

"What?" he protested angrily, gripping the detective's wrists a little tighter. L sucked in a pained breath.

"I only gave you a good dose of what you were giving me…" L muttered dejectedly, and Light's anger was marred by his confusion. L turned off to the side as he explained.

"You and your habits…Raito-kun does this thing where he tucks his bangs behind his ear, but then they fall out because they're too short or too smooth or whatnot, and so he tucks them back again but they fall, at least a dozen times. It happens all the time you're thinking deeply. And then always tugging on your shirt collar when you have bad cards like you're getting too hot. And then that _chocolate sauce…_" L fell silent with a wanton whimper.

Light felt his face getting uncontrollably hot. "Are you telling me our card game got screwed up because I was turning you on?"

He instantly regretted the words the moment they were out of his mouth. _Way to sound arrogant, Light…_he chastised himself mentally as Ryuuzaki's incomparable eyes switched back to meet his.

"You thought I had a spade?"

Light blinked and L repeated, "A spade. My tell. The finger thing."

Finally realizing what he was talking about – _oh right, the card game – _Light gritted his teeth. "You knew about your tell? So you were screwing me over with that, too?"

L smiled sheepishly this time. "No. It wasn't my spades that were distracting me, it was Raito-kun and his lovely, tantalizing chocolate sauce!"

Light glared down at L and slowly lowered his face until their noses were a breath away from touching, L pinned half-under the coffee table by his own prisoner, with the scattered litter of sweets and cake strewn around him knocked loose by their fight. _This is just how I imagined it!_ He squealed inwardly.

"I really hate you right now, Ryuuzaki…" Light hissed, and then brought his teeth down slowly and bit into L's plump lower lip. "But what I hate even _more_ is losing. So this time _I'm _going to cheat…" he whispered into L's lips, "and _I'm going to win!!"_

_Wait. Hold up!_

Light froze and went to his inner kingdom where everything was, for some reason, red and blue. Releasing Ryuuzaki's wrists and crossing his arms, his deductive reasoning sped out of control, his thoughts rushing at several hundred miles an hour.

_How would molesting Ryuuzaki make me the winner? I'm not gay or anything. In fact he'd probably win by just getting me into this position._ _That is, if he's gay, and if he's trying to seduce me…_

L blinked up at his captor and reached for a cookie on the floor nearby, nibbling methodically on it while he watched. Light was very amusing when he was thinking frantically.

_He probably doesn't know what the hell he is. He's a friggin social recluse. It would surprise me if anyone had ever even kissed him before. Either way…_

Ryuuzaki had finished his cookie and was reaching for another, further behind his head. Light twitched visibly as the detective arched under him, stretching and exposing a smooth patch of snow-white skin between his jeans and his shirt. He stared down at the spot while L munched on the cookie and waved a hand in front of his face.

"Yagami-kun is having trouble with something. Normally his simpler deductions take under 12.5 seconds."

_Creeper! _Light accused in his head, and then berated himself for continuing to stare at Ryuuzaki's stomach. _And you're a hypocrite. _This was very unsettling – Light switched tracks. "L, you didn't have an ulterior motive for playing, did you?"

The detective cocked his head questioningly. "Well, I decided that if we were going to be handcuffed together, I wouldn't want you to get all sleepless and irritable on me. I thought I could perhaps…be nice to you for once, after what I've put you through."

_Gah! Stop pretending to regret the stupid jail cell when you're doing something even more unforgivable! And stop driving me crazy._

"And anyways," Ryuuzaki was saying, "You're the one with the ulterior motive, Raito-kun. You're the one that seduced me."

"I didn't _lick_ anybody." Light huffed. L looked hurt, and Light cursed himself for realizing how effeminate it made him look. Large, black watery eyes that were not striking or piercing but _pretty._

_GAH! SHUT UP!_

"You didn't lick me…but you were playing games with my head! That bloody chocolate sauce…"

"Ryuuzaki, I was _just playing poker!!_"

"We could sit here accusing each other of seduction all night, Raito-kun." He sighed. "But ultimately, we _both_ know who is attracted to who here."

Burning red eyes met his in a stony, unbreakable glare. Light hissed in anger. "No, I have no idea. You have confused me to the point of insanity."

"Then allow me to demonstrate a point," L whispered, digging his hand into the floor and pushing himself up to crash his lips into Light's, furiously enthusiastic. The teenager squeaked in surprise and instantly backed away, but the blush on his cheek was uncontrollable and burning hot. L stared up at him, triumphant and smiling adorably like he had just caught Kira.

Which, technically, he had.

"So, _Raito-kun…_" L said in a sing-song voice, delighted by his friend's reaction. A delectably strawberry-red blush was sweeping up his cheeks and there was an angry twitch in his eyebrow. L swung his legs up smoothly, so he was kneeling on the floor. "Have I won the game?"

Light shook his head like a petulant child. "No." he complained.

"Oh, come on," L scoffed. He pushed himself forwards on his hands. "Victory is mine!" He snarled, poking Light in the nose.

_GAH! So close, he's breathing on me…will completely lose control in a few seconds…_

"No!" he snapped, probably angrier with his own instincts than Ryuuzaki's comments. "You're still cheating!"

L cocked his head curiously to the side, and Light nearly pounced on him and those glittering, dark-lashed eyes. A predatorial smile grew on the detective's face as he spoke, "I believe it was said earlier tonight, ah, what was it…" he whispered – _so close! –_ into Light's ear. "_All's fair in love and war?"_

This time, Light _did_ pounce.

_Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!_ Squeaked L inwardly, as Light's lips smashed into his and he was pinned to the floor once more. _I knew it! The world's greatest detective is never wrong._ L let that be his last coherent thought, allowing his brain to shut down in favor of the pleasure.

Light wasted no time in prying open L's lips, slipping his tongue inside and ravishing his mouth for all it was worth. He didn't care, suddenly, how wrong this was, only that a fire was building inside of him and he wanted, _needed _Ryuuzaki to quell it.

L only thought giddily about how Light tasted so much like chocolate sauce.

Light tilted his head and moaned a soft challenge into the detective's lips. His suddenly-more-than-a-friend fought valiantly, tongue warring back and hands clawing through his hair. Light growled at the sensation and recoiled, pulling L upwards so the small, excitable detective was straddling him comfortably. Light wrapped his arms around his back, forcing their chests together and feeling L's heart thunder powerfully, rapidly against his own.

They broke after a minute, breaths fluttering heat on their burning cheeks. Light cracked open his eyes to see a fraction of L's face – a distorted, crazy smile and wide eyes closed in bliss. As he watched those eyes opened and Light felt like he was falling into their obsidian depths.

_Nnng…freakin' L turned me into a sap…_

The detective in question suddenly blinked in a disgusted revelation. "Ew ew ew _ew!_" He hissed uncomfortably, hands yanking at Light's hair to share his distaste. He held his breath angrily and squeezed his eyes shut, cutting Light off from his fall mercifully.

"L?" Light breathed cautiously, still trying to force air back into his lungs. "Are you alright?"

L kept his eyes squeezed shut in protest, wringing his hands. "Raito-kun there is annoying-sticky-chocolate-sauce _all_ over my _back_ and it is _very_ uncomfortable."

Silence.

And then L cracked opened his eyes to find a spark of daring mirrored back at him. As the eyes of the detective and suspect met, the same glowing idea hit them both at once in a moment of devilish realization, and before either could think straight four hands were clawing separately at L's ruined shirt, desperate to relieve him of it before the room got any warmer.

XxXxXxX

3:07 AM flashed up like a warning that L, sweating and exhausted but blissful, proudly ignored. He wouldn't let one little experiment break his record of perfect insomnia. Not tonight, when he had Raito dreaming almost silently next to him, eyelashes fluttering gracefully in sleep.

_Is he perhaps dreaming of me?_ L wondered giddily, drawing up two slender, snow-white fingers to push the sticky bangs out of Light's eyes.

To his amusement, they slid back in to place almost instantly. Feeling obsessive, L tried again and almost laughed out loud when they tumbled back. The detective sighed, muttered, "you're so very stubborn, Raito-kun…"

And decided that, perhaps, he could drop the ball for one night. L rolled over and snuggled back up against Light's chest before falling comfortably asleep.

XxXxXxX

**Holy freakin' crap, around five-thousand words for a oneshot. This is pretty epic for something like that; usually my chapters are only three thousand apiece.**

**I guess I love these guys too much. :3 L is so fun to write for and yet **_**so**_** hard to keep in character. Inspiration came from 21, an awesome movie that's actually about blackjack and not poker, but is still pretty awesome.**

**So anyways, first Death Note oneshot, check! I'm release a dark Misa/Matsuda oneshot (a good lot more angsty than this little tester) to provide a little balance.**

**Argh, FFXII is being mean to me. Expect more Death Note fun before I go back to the three epics I'm trying to write at once. DX I need to prioritize. :P**


End file.
